The term 'nationalization', which refers to the mechanisms that integrate, both vertically and horizontally, a state's political system, has recently achieved a preeminent place in the field of subnational politics, particularly when the focus is on the party system, electoral coordination between districts, political careers, and legislative and government coalitional dynamics. This article argues that although there is a certain degree of consensus about its broader meaning, there is no such consensus when the term 'nationalization' is applied to federal, regionally decentralized or multinational states. In these cases it is necessary to place the focus on two theoretical issues that have generally not been taken into account. On the one hand, (a) the analogous institutional origin of national and subnational civic communities on which the idea of 'rational consensus' in the formation of representative democracy rests and, on the other, (b) the instrumental character of national parties as a means of endogenously justifying the coordination of the strategic inter-district entry of political elites. By clarifying these two points, it is possible to theoretically link the presence of multiple political identities, territorially institutionalized interests, with models of political coordination that are in partial equilibrium or completely nationalized.